Living in the rain shadow

[Okanagan]

We now live in a small patch of odd climate. They call it a rain shadow when air off of the ocean rises over a mountain range, drops most of its moisture in rain or snow, and then leaves a dry area with little rain or snow on the downwind side of the mountains.   For days, we have had snow squalls and rain storms passing around us, especially along the mountain range whose near peaks are a dozen miles south of us.  Heavy clouds hang all around us but we live in the middle of a blue hole, as the pilots call it.  Blue sky above a patch sometimes only 5-8 miles across. 

From Wikipedia:

The Dungeness Valley around Sequim, Washington lies in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains. The area averages 10â€"15 inches of rain per year, less than half of the amount received in nearby Port Angeles and approximately 10% of that which falls in Forks on the western side of the mountains.

We are 17 miles from rainy Port Angeles and maybe two hours from Forks, which gets 100-150 inches.  Yet we get 15-20 inches and my sons have a business installing irrigation systems here.  They say that the annual rainfall goes up one inch per mile as you drive west from Sequim.  It rains a lot more in the mountains just outside Forks, a true rain forest with the highest rainfall in the continental US. 

We do get a lot of overcast days with a mist in the air that gets bushes and everything wet outside, but does not fall as measurable rain. 

[Coyotes-R-Us]

Well aware of the "shadow" affect along the Rocky Mt front.